I'm about to buy iMac 2013...

[yutyues]

Hi everyone, I'm thinking to buy the last Imac with the follow caracteristics:
I5 QuadCore
16GB DDR3 1600mhz
Fusion Drive 1 TB
GeForce GTX 680MX NVIDIA 2 GB GDDR5

But I'm doubting if the I7 procesor worth the money, because in Spain the I7 costs 200€ more... and I don't use the computer for video works or things like that so I don't think I will take the advance...

And the other thing, is If I have to wait at least untill the end of this month in order to know if apple renew the processors for the Haswells...

What do you think???

Thanks!

 

[jmcgeejr]

Hi everyone, I'm thinking to buy the last Imac with the follow caracteristics:
I5 QuadCore
16GB DDR3 1600mhz
Fusion Drive 1 TB
GeForce GTX 680MX NVIDIA 2 GB GDDR5

But I'm doubting if the I7 procesor worth the money, because in Spain the I7 costs 200€ more... and I don't use the computer for video works or things like that so I don't think I will take the advance...

And the other thing, is If I have to wait at least untill the end of this month in order to know if apple renew the processors for the Haswells...

What do you think???

Thanks!

If you are not doing any kind of video transcoding or hosting virtual machines, there is no need for the i7 (even with the video transcoding it's not worth it in my opinion)

 

[Serban]

if you dont hurry or need...wait for the MAC updates...probably iMac are included for the wifi ac, geforce 7xxM, probably better Fusion drive

 

[forty2j]

Hi everyone, I'm thinking to buy the last Imac with the follow caracteristics:
I5 QuadCore
16GB DDR3 1600mhz
Fusion Drive 1 TB
GeForce GTX 680MX NVIDIA 2 GB GDDR5

But I'm doubting if the I7 procesor worth the money, because in Spain the I7 costs 200€ more... and I don't use the computer for video works or things like that so I don't think I will take the advance...

And the other thing, is If I have to wait at least untill the end of this month in order to know if apple renew the processors for the Haswells...

What do you think???

Thanks!

The wait for the next model is likely to be closer to 3 months than 1 month.

In terms of the existing model (which is considered the "late 2012"), i7 is almost never worth the money, and buying additional RAM from Apple is absolutely never worth the money. In the first case, few applications actually take advantage of the hyperthreading. In the 2nd case, Apple charges double-triple the market rate for RAM, yet it is standard, can be purchased anywhere (I like crucial.com personally), and can be self-installed in 5 minutes.

 

[yutyues]

first of all thx to all of you for your fast answers, I'll take them into account

The wait for the next model is likely to be closer to 3 months than 1 month.

In terms of the existing model (which is considered the "late 2012"), i7 is almost never worth the money, and buying additional RAM from Apple is absolutely never worth the money. In the first case, few applications actually take advantage of the hyperthreading. In the 2nd case, Apple charges double-triple the market rate for RAM, yet it is standard, can be purchased anywhere (I like crucial.com personally), and can be self-installed in 5 minutes.

So I guess next renew will be in October... and it doesn't suppose a problem for my so I willing to wait using my notebook...

Thanks!

 

[Bear]

If you bought right now, you would be getting a late 2012 model - there is no 2013 model yet.

 

[A Hebrew]

Unless Apple was waiting for just the Haswell processors coming out later this week (I think they are at least) do not expect an iMac for a few more months. Might as well buy now unless you intend to use the flash storage apple offers. Realistically the NVIDIA cards are a small improvement that will not extend the life of the iMac very far and Haswell is more for power-saving and for integrated graphics improvement. Neither of which the iMac would benefit from.

On an unrelated note: I am waiting till August 15th...ish until I order an iMac, I hope they do release a new one before then but I do not care either way since the improvements are going to be minimal.

 

[Apple fanboy]

and can be self-installed in 5 minutes.

Only on the 27". The OP doesn't mention which screen size he's looking at.
If you are going for the bigger screen, then yes buy it and install yourself.
If going for the 21" then upgrade to 16gb for future proofing, even if you don't need now. It's a pig to do yourself and will void your warranty (on the 21").
As for the waiting, if you need it now buy now. If not carry on waiting for x months. Nobody knows when apple will up date.

 

[marzer]

Hi everyone, I'm thinking to buy the last Imac with the follow caracteristics:
I5 QuadCore
16GB DDR3 1600mhz
Fusion Drive 1 TB
GeForce GTX 680MX NVIDIA 2 GB GDDR5

But I'm doubting if the I7 procesor worth the money, because in Spain the I7 costs 200€ more... and I don't use the computer for video works or things like that so I don't think I will take the advance...

And the other thing, is If I have to wait at least untill the end of this month in order to know if apple renew the processors for the Haswells...

What do you think???

Thanks!

If you can afford the faster i7 processor then I would highly recommend it. It extends the life of your machine regardless of what tasks you perform. My 2009 i7 iMac still is a very stronger performer with faster benchmark scores than some of the 2011/2012 i5 iMacs.

http://www.primatelabs.com/blog/2012/12/imac-27-late-2012-benchmarks/

http://www.primatelabs.com/blog/2011/05/imac-benchmarks-mid-2011/

http://browser.primatelabs.com/mac-benchmarks

And don't mind the mis-information regarding hyperthreading. Though there are a few apps that exploit it, people seem to forget that OS X also takes advantage of hyperthreading, regardless of the apps you are using, to boost the overall performance of your machine. In addition, the i7 version of Intel's CPU's consistently benchmark higher than the i5 version.

 

[Arfdog]

If you can afford the faster i7 processor then I would highly recommend it. It extends the life of your machine regardless of what tasks you perform. My 2009 i7 iMac still is a very stronger performer with faster benchmark scores than some of the 2011/2012 i5 iMacs.

http://www.primatelabs.com/blog/2012/12/imac-27-late-2012-benchmarks/

http://www.primatelabs.com/blog/2011/05/imac-benchmarks-mid-2011/

http://browser.primatelabs.com/mac-benchmarks

And don't mind the mis-information regarding hyperthreading. Though there are a few apps that exploit it, people seem to forget that OS X also takes advantage of hyperthreading, regardless of the apps you are using, to boost the overall performance of your machine. In addition, the i7 version of Intel's CPU's consistently benchmark higher than the i5 version.

Does the i7 do anything else besides post high benchmark scores?

 

[marzer]

Does the i7 do anything else besides post high benchmark scores?

Yes, outperforms the i5 class of processors at all computational tasks.

 

[mentaluproar]

Wait for the iMac updates and skip the i7. If you aren't sure if you need an i7, you don't need an i7.

 

[Arfdog]

Yes, outperforms the i5 class of processors at all computational tasks.

Not non-hyper-threaded ones.

 

[marzer]

Not non-hyper-threaded ones.

Yes it does. OS X hyperthreads, providing an efficiency increase across the system regardless of the individual apps doing or not. I've got two i7 iMacs (2009 & 2012) and under heavy load OS X will the perform hyperthreading.

"OS X also supports Hyper-Threading in the Core i7, allowing two threads to run simultaneously on each core — giving you eight virtual cores of processing power."

And HT aside, the i7 class consistently outperforms the i5 in raw speed. Since when is a faster processor not more desirable?

 

[jmhart]

Yes it does. OS X hyperthreads, providing an efficiency increase across the system regardless of the individual apps doing or not. I've got two i7 iMacs (2009 & 2012) and under heavy load OS X will the perform hyperthreading.

"OS X also supports Hyper-Threading in the Core i7, allowing two threads to run simultaneously on each core — giving you eight virtual cores of processing power."

And HT aside, the i7 class consistently outperforms the i5 in raw speed. Since when is a faster processor not more desirable?

Without HT the difference is negligible at equal clocks...even in the most heavily multi-threaded environments you're looking at a peak of around 30% increase going with an I7 over an I5. Honestly it's only worth it if the machine can be supplied with enough threads to make it worth it--like constant CPU based (not gaming) 3D rendering or video encoding in a studio where seconds wasted = dollars.

Not worth it for general home usage pattern:

Maybe worth it for heavily multi-threaded usage pattern, depending on how often you're even going to be running this way at home:
CPU based 3D rendering:

CPU based video encoding:

 

[forty2j]

Only on the 27". The OP doesn't mention which screen size he's looking at.
If you are going for the bigger screen, then yes buy it and install yourself.
If going for the 21" then upgrade to 16gb for future proofing, even if you don't need now. It's a pig to do yourself and will void your warranty (on the 21").
As for the waiting, if you need it now buy now. If not carry on waiting for x months. Nobody knows when apple will up date.

Erm, he said he was targeting the 680mx. That pretty much tells me the screen size.

 

[macs4nw]

Hi everyone, I'm thinking to buy the last Imac with the follow caracteristics:
I5 QuadCore
16GB DDR3 1600mhz
Fusion Drive 1 TB
GeForce GTX 680MX NVIDIA 2 GB GDDR5

But I'm doubting if the I7 procesor worth the money, because in Spain the I7 costs 200€ more... and I don't use the computer for video works or things like that so I don't think I will take the advance....And the other thing, is If I have to wait at least untill the end of this month in order to know if apple renew the processors for the Haswells.....What do you think??? Thanks!

What you have up there sounds like an excellent choice, depending on what you mean by "video works or things like that". You might not even get that much benefit from the 16GB of memory, and could consider dropping that for some more savings. The 680MX graphics is something I would definitely keep on the list. Unless you are doing real CPU-intensive applications on a daily basis, of the three items, i7, 16GB memory and upgraded graphics, the last item is probably the choice that'll give you the most noticeable performance improvement. After the graphics upgrade, if money is not an issue, the memory upgrade to 16GB is probably the next-most beneficial thing to have.

As to the second part of your question, there is no doubt in anyone's mind that HASWELL as well as 802.11ac are coming to the iMac, but no one knows for sure, when. The current form factor is from late 2012, so no major re-designs are expected in the near future. I can only speculate here, but my guess would be that they might do a 'quiet update' to those latest specs, sometime in Oct-Nov. Buena suerte!

 

[yutyues]

Thx you all again for all the information and performance graphs, I'm really interested on buy the 2012 Imac, and I think for me there will not be to much
diference with the new one ,but as all of us I want to spend my money in the newst technology I can so , I'm gonna wait the update of Imac, especially due to the new nvidia 7x...

Thanks !!!

 

[marzer]

Without HT the difference is negligible at equal clocks...even in the most heavily multi-threaded environments you're looking at a peak of around 30% increase going with an I7 over an I5. Honestly it's only worth it if the machine can be supplied with enough threads to make it worth it--like constant CPU based (not gaming) 3D rendering or video encoding in a studio where seconds wasted = dollars.

Not worth it for general home usage pattern:
Image

Maybe worth it for heavily multi-threaded usage pattern, depending on how often you're even going to be running this way at home:
CPU based 3D rendering: Image
CPU based video encoding: Image

Ok, so you've reinforced my arguement with those graphs. Only one version of the i5 (i5-4670k, and not available in the iMac lineup yet) from the latest generation of Intel Core processors is even worthy of being demonstrated along with the i7 family.

The geekbenck historical evidence shows that over the past several years the i7 iMacs consistently outperforms the i5 iMacs in raw power. That's indisputable evidence. Even tech rags around the web consistently refer to the i7 as top-of-the line for performance, with the i5 being best bang for the buck in the Intel line-up.

You even state so yourself, "Maybe worth it for heavily multi-threaded usage pattern, depending on how often you're even going to be running this way at home". That translates to raw power. Todays undertasked high-end CPU ends up surviving longer into the future as software demands evolve (OS and applications). And VM's appear to be a popular use for Mac's (Parallel, VM Ware, Virtualbox, etc.) amongst users on this forum. That makes particular good use of virtual cores to improve system performance. Esp. for those wanting to run VM appplications seemlessly along side OS X applications. Again, keeping in mind you don't need applications to exercise the full potential of hypertheading, OS X takes adavantage of it to improve execution efficiency of the system regardless of your application's architecture.

Search these forums, usually the hackintosh builders choosing to build their own machine for a performance edge not available in the Apple line up go i7. Its simple economics, you want to save some money but have a well performing architecture you go with the i5. If you want the most power available on the consumer market you go i7.

Its like horsepower in an automobile. If its a concern to you, you spend the extra $$ to get the most that you can afford, if not you save yourself the $$ with pleather and really good gas mileage.

 

[marzer]

Another interesting find. I don't know if it still is, but 20 years ago when I built my own PCs, Computer Shopper was the home PC builder's almanac. This is a recent ranking of available procesors, with top 4 of the top 5 being the i7. And their top recommended processor being the i7-3770k, which used in the iMac line up.

http://www.computershopper.com/components/processor

 

[Apple fanboy]

Erm, he said he was targeting the 680mx. That pretty much tells me the screen size.

I missed that! In my defence it was late and I am unwell!